Late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded USD 10 billion and large-scale shipments of food and fertilizer, a former South Korean president says in a memoir to be published next week.

Former NBA star Charles D Smith says he feels remorse for coming to Pyongyang with Dennis Rodman for a game on the North Korean leader`s birthday because the event has been dwarfed by politics and tainted by Rodman`s own comments.

North Korea vowed to unite behind leader Kim Jong Un during carefully staged events on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of his father`s death, in an attempt to show it has returned to business as usual after the purge and execution of his once-powerful uncle last week.

A top US official secretly flew into North Korea twice last year, in an unsuccessful effort to improve ties with the reclusive Communist state after new ruler Kim Jong-Un assumed power, a media report claimed on Sunday.